Simple Recipes

Vegan Cold Brew Coffee Meal Prep

In the morning I only get up at the last possible second so long drawn out mornings are not really my thing. I guess if you’re a busy morning person who just gets up early to knock a bunch of stuff out then this could be a way to streamline your morning.

Mark highlyrecommends finding the beans roasted most recently. Fresh is best. Mark will drive to a different Whole Foods location if the beans at his first location aren’t fresh enough. High horse standards.

Then freshly grind the beans. Buy and grind them (at the store or at home) on the day of cold brewing.

We didn’t have a container large enough to hold 8 cups of water plus 2 cups of coffee grinds. We could have used a crock pot vessel but the disposable water bottle worked a bit better. When pouring out the brew the design of the bottle held back a lot of the coffee grinds. Plus one less thing to clean up.

How much does this make?I wrote “7 days” but this really makes 8 cup size servings. 8 days. Now I don’t like it super strong so 1 cup of cold brew coffee with ice, sweetener & 1 cup of almond milk will go into my 30 oz insulated mug then I’ll fill in any extra space with cold water. Just taste it and see.

Trying to save money by making instead of buying at starbucks?
Here’s some tips:

Find beans you love. Darker roasts are less caffeine, more smooth. Some beans are more sour and acidic, etc. Find the ones that taste good to you. Smell the beans in the bulk section. Maybe buy a small amount of different beans that smell good to you. Or buy whatever beans from Starbucks.

Get freshly roasted beans. Coffee shops use fresh and that’s part of their success.

Buy some bunch of flavored syrups. I get mine at world market. I think whole foods has a small variety in their coffee section. Or order online. And yes I buy the chemical death sugar free options.

Maybe invest in a fancy (or cheap) milk frother for homemade lattes. As long as the almond milk is ice cold it froths up perfectly in our breville milk frother. Best $100 we spent 3 years ago. Still going strong!

Mark insists you should grind your beans every morning but that extra step is only for people who need a gold star.

RECIPE: Grind 2 cups of beans, soaking 8 cups of water

Grind 2 cups of beans

Add grinds to 8 cups of water and stir.

Let sit for on your kitchen counter for 12-24 hours. The longer it sits the stronger your brew will be. You may even need to dilute it depending how much ice, almond milk or sweetener you put in the final product.

Filter your coffee from the grinds. If you do a sloppy job at filtering like I did you may want to filter it a second like. Store in fridge. ENJOY

Cold Brew Coffee Storage Options:

#1 – If mornings are crazy busy you can have 8 individual mason jars ready in the fridge. With 8 large jars add your coffee, sweetener and almond milk so it’s ready to grab and go. Kind of like those little glass bottles of cold Starbucks you can pre-made at the gas station.

#2 – In the fridge you can store 8 little mason jars with a cup of cold brew coffee in each of them. Then before you head out the door in the morning you can pour that into your favorite water bottle/travel mug with ice, almond milk and sweetener.

#3 – You can have one large pitcher that you keep in the fridge and just pour as needed.